‘Ben-Hur’ Remake Stumbles in Box-Office Race, Opens in 5th Place

Rounding out the top 10 movies this week, as estimated by studio accountants projecting ticket sales in the USA and Canada, were “Pete’s Dragon” ($11.3 million), “Bad Moms” ($8 million), “Jason Bourne” ($8 million), “The Secret Life of Pets” ($5.8 million) and “Florence Foster Jenkins” ($4.3 million). That makes it one of the season’s more painful flops, albeit one that never had sky-high hopes. It’s now made $262.3 million despite steep declines week to week.

Seth Rogen’s raunchy animated “Sausage Party” came in second place in its second week with a $15.3 million take, representing a 55% drop in ticket sales from its debut, but is expected to eventually hit $100 million in ticket sales.

Stay on topic – This helps keep the thread focused on the discussion at hand. Ben-Hur’s less-than-impressive weekend total places the film in the same boat as films like Pompeii and Exodus: Gods and Kings, both expensive historical epics that failed to catch on with North American audiences. Though it holds off fellow newcomers like Kubo and the Two Strings and Ben-Hur, which take aim at very different audiences, Dogs earns an underwhelming B grade on CinemaScore, which means poor word of mouth could see the film take a nosedive next weekend. The film added another 2.1 million dollars internationally this weekend, standing at 71.3 million dollars worldwide.

It’s a dismal opening for a film with a budget of about $100 million, and it adds to a string of tentpole releases set in ancient times that have tanked at the USA box office, including “Gods of Egypt”, “Exodus: Gods and Kings” and “The Legend of Hercules”.